The greatest thing for me of the fall out of the lack of Prince vs. MJ is my renewed interest in listening to their music. iPut Thriller on the iPhone and drove around to it while passing billboards for the 25th Ani release. I went to Amoeba and – though they didn’t have the Eclipse Lubitsch Musicals collection – they started playing Michael Jackson’s greatest hits, and I found the complete collection of Homicide: Life on the Streets for $120. With my trade-in, it cost me half that. I haven’t seen any of it before, so I hope it’s worth having, though the resell value should be good. While getting checked out, two of the other clerks and myself couldn’t help singing along to Rock With You, and that led my cashier to light up. We were all enjoying the music, and it almost makes you just want to hang out. It was bonding, in that way.
In Godfather II they give Pentangelli a hundred bucks before they try to strangle him, while Don Vito gives beak-dipper Don Fannuci a hundred before his assassination. Never noticed that before. That said, of late I’ve been way more into Altman. The Godfather films are undeniable, though, but so part of the fabric of our cinema world it’s hard for me to get excited about watching them again. That said, I was hanging out with a recent college graduate who told me that the oldest film he’d ever seen was The Godfather and that happened two weeks ago. Just no knowledge at all of the entire film industry. I don’t live in that world.
Jeffery Wells had a bit about Milkshakes, and the subsequent drinking of others, and some of his readers mentioned they were tired of hearing about it, and then he referenced a story where the authors suggested it was a new phenomenon to them (whereas the internet world has been “drinking your milkshake” for months now). I think this is the defining characteristic of the brave meme world. There’s either over-exposure or ignorance, and little in-between. It all depends on what circles of webjunk you’re in, while the mainstream is quick to cannibalize anything that hits big (witness: Leave Britney Alone Guy, not even given the time of day over the last couple. So over, because so overexposed). I think this is the case with music, and may eventually effect TV or Movies if they pass the saturation point. We’re close with television, but there isn’t that much original content, nor the ability for everyone to do it.
I grew up in a culture where – though there were local idiosyncrasies – pop culture was the radio station playing Journey next to Michael Jackson, next to Quiet Riot, next to Pet Shop Boys, etc. There were four TV channels, until cable blew up. There will no longer be that communal ground for the future gens, not in the same way, except for with movies. Though if there is something you want to reference, you’ll likely be able to find it on the interent and indoctrinate whomever you can sucker into watching it.